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John Quincy Adams, his Best Poem Sent To the Object of his Desire
John Quincy Adams, his Best Poem Sent To the Object of his Desire
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Adams John Quincy

John Quincy Adams, his Best Poem Sent To the Object of his Desire

 

This satirical poem by a young John Quincy Adams, recently graduated from Harvard College, provides a sketch of nine young women he knew in Newburyport, where he was reading law.

 

Manuscript Poem, ca. 1787-1790, Massachusetts. 9 pp., 7.5" x 12.675"  Expected folds, some browning, and some edge tears; attached at top center with a pretty ribbon through all leaves.


We feel it is very possible that "A Vision" and "John Quincy Adams" were indeed penned by the future president in a calligraphic hand with some resemblance to his writing, and that the body of the poem is carefully penned by a scribe or friend. Adams always had a peculiar hand and maybe was embarrassed by this. Nonetheless, we offer this as all in another hand. We are however very sure that this was the poem that was presented because of the included provenance and attribution to Elizabeth Williams Weld. Also the decorative nature of this item is convincing of having been the actual poem that Adams would have presented.

 

A Vision

written by

John Quincy Adams

Fatigued with labor and with care oppress’d

At once my mind and body sought for rest.

The drowsy God upon my aching head

With liberal hand his friendly poppies shed.

When lo! before me wond’rous scenes appear’d

Strange things I saw and stranger things I heard.

On purple pinions borne, the God of love

With rapid flights descended from above.

His golden quiver by a ribbon hung

In graceful case across his shoulder slung,

The fatal bow his ensign of command

With dire intent he wielded in his hand;

He saw me first, and took a feather’d dart,

Prepar’d his bow, and level’d at my heart.

…

With all the charms of beauty richly fraught,

Lucinda first my fond attention caught.

A faultless person and a lovely mind

I found with wonder were in her combined,

Deficient only in a single part

She wanted nothing but a feeling heart;

Calm and unruffled as a Summers sea,

From passion’s gales, Lucinda’s heart was free;

A faithless lover she may well defy,

Recall her heart, nor breathe a single sigh.

And should a second prove inconstant too

She changes on till she can find one true.

 

Belinda next advanc’d with rapid stride,

A compound strange of vanity and pride;

Around her face no wanton Cupids play,

Her tawny skin defys the God of day.

Loud was her laugh, undaunted was her look,

And Folly seem’d to dictate what she spoke.

In vain the poets and musicians art

Combine to move the passions of her heart,

Belinda’s voice like grating hinges groans

And in harsh thunder roars a lover’s moans.

....

Come! and before the lovely Clara’s shrine

The mingled tribute of your praises join.

My Clara’s charms, no vulgar poet claim,

No servile bard that clips the wings of fame,

To vile acrostics tunes unmeaning lays

Or in a rebus centers all his praise.

The partial gods presiding at her birth

Gave Clara beauty when they gave her worth;

 Kind Nature form’d of purest while her skin

An emblem of her innocence within.

And called on cheerful health her aid to lend

The roses colors in her face to blend.

While Venus added to compleat the fair

The eyes blue languish and the golden hair.

But far superior charms exalt her mind

Adorn’d by nature and by art refin’d;

Hers are the lasting beauties of the heart,

The charms which nature only can impart,

The generous purpose and the soul sincere,

Meek sorrow’s sigh and gentle pity’s tear.

Ah! lovely Clara can a heart like thine

Accept a tribute of a Muse like mine?

Should these poor lays attract thy beauteous eye

Say, would they raise the sympathetic sigh?

For thee, my breast with vivid ardor glows,

For thee, my blood with rapid impulse flows.

By day thy beauties are my darling theme,

By night thy image sweetens many a dream;

On thee, thy ardent lovers fate depends,

From thee the evil or the boon descends,

Thy choice alone can make my anxious breast

Supremely wretched or supremely blest!

 

[Endorsement in pencil: This poem was written to Elizabeth Williams Weld (Aunt Lizzie) Mr Adams had proposed to Aunt Lizzie. he wrote this poem to her

 

John Quincy Adams began writing the pieces that make up “A Vision” as early as January 1787, but it was not completed until 1790. Adams patterened it after the “Receipt for a Wife,” which Adams had read while staying in New York in the summer of 1785. He copied portions of that poem into his diary. In the late 1780s, it was common for aspiring poets to satirize young women in “rebuses,” literary puzzles in the form of poems often with clues in classical references, and have them published in the local newspaper. Although “A Vision” was not published at this time, it apparently circulated in manuscript form among Adams’s friends.

 

“A Vision” remained unpublished until December 1839, when it was published in Brother Jonathan, the weekly edition of the New York Evening Tattler.  It was later included in John Quincy Adams, Poems of Religion and Society, published in 1850.  After rereading it in published form in 1839, Adams regarded it as his best poem, “As a Poet I have never surpassed it. My summit level as a Statesman, Orator, Philosopher and Proser is of about the same elevation.”

 

There is much speculation about the identity of the nine women of whom Adams wrote. “Almira” was probably Catherine Jones, though some think she was “Clara.” Others believe “Clara” was Mary Frazier, with whom Adams was romantically involved. “Belinda” was Rebecca Cazneau, about whom Adams wrote in his diary, “Miss Cazneau, has nothing in her person to recommend her, but a very good shape....” “Corrina” seems to have been Harriet Bradbury. “Lucinda” was Lucy Knight, whom Adams met in March 1788, and “Narcissa” was likely Mary Newhall, who had spurned his affections.

 

An interesting feature of this manuscript is the marginal notations for six of the characters. “Belinda” is identified as “Miss Cazneau”; “Narcissa” as “Mrs. Coffin”; “Vanasa” as “Mrs. Faris”; “Corinna” as “Mrs. Hooper” (perhaps Mrs. Mary Harris Hooper, wife of loyalist Joseph Hooper, and landlady of Adams’s fellow law student Horatio Townsend); “Nerea” as “Mrs. Thomas”; and “Clara” as “Mrs. Sargent.”  “Lucinda,” “Statira,” and “Almira” remain unidentified. These attributions suggest the malleable nature of the poem. Adams himself may have written portions about one subject, then applied them to another when he completed the poem later.

 

The endorsement and an enclosed envelope illustrate this penchant for identifying the characters in the poem with others. The envelope reads, “A poem written to Elizabeth Williams Weld by John Quincy Adams Mr Adams twice proposed to Miss Weld, who later married Epes Sargent of Ips[wich?” The attributions assure that this is the actual poem Adams sent because it came from the family of the recipient.

 

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was born in Massachusetts, the son of future President John Adams. He accompanied his father on several diplomatic missions in the 1770s and 1780s and graduated from Harvard College in 1787. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791. Adams served successively as minister to The Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain, from 1794 to 1801 and from 1809 to 1817. He met Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852), the daughter of a poor American merchant, while in Europe, and they married in 1797 in London. He began his career a moderate Federalist but switched to the Jeffersonian Republican Party around the year 1807. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, and was a brilliant Secretary of State (1817-1825), taking the lead role in formulating the Monroe Doctrine. He won the election of 1824, which was decided in the House of Representatives because no candidate won a majority in the Electoral College. Adams’s “deal” with House Speaker Henry Clay, whom he named Secretary of State, helped spark the formation of an opposition party around Andrew Jackson. John Quincy Adams served one largely frustrating term as president and lost in the election of 1828 to Andrew Jackson. Surprising most observers, Adams stood for election to the House of Representatives in 1831 and served seventeen memorable years, becoming a bulwark for civil liberties and a voice in the emerging anti-slavery movement. He defended the Amistad slaves before the Supreme Court in 1841, and died of a stroke on the floor of the House in 1848.

 

 

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